Accidental Reaver

Getting up off his back, Luke got an eyeful of his surroundings.

Floating green flames gave off cold, desolate light. Stone debris rotated above the grey, silver, and golden vault floors. Transparent chains attached to the black ceiling; murky liquid dripped from them every so often.

A wailing echo bounced from the crackled, rotting walls made of wooden and precious metal. Three monster packs, each led by a commander, patrolled a third of the boss room each. Two small sunken circles in the ground seemed to define their pathing.

Coming down from the back of the ceiling were three of the translucent chains wrapping around a twister of souls, as far as Luke could tell. White and gray faces would morph and change by the second, sucked back in by the twister's rotation, the emotion on each varying.

The Soul Twister stayed in a steady rotation in place. There was a gap between the floor Luke had taken and where the Soul Twister fruitlessly struggled against the chains on a floating platform. Sure he'd gathered the environment well enough, Luke allowed the Interface messages to populate his vision long enough to read them.

[An overwhelming spiritual rot aura infects the air in this place. Sapping health, stamina, and class resource at a rapid rate]

[Detected you are a being who basked in a Nether realm, the Reaver. The spiritual rot invigorates you, boosting stamina and resource regeneration. Wounds heal faster]

Swiping them away with a hand, Luke got a read on the three command ghosts leading a pack each. These ghosts appeared to be a Mage and Knight mix, spectral mana orbs floating behind them as they held a kite shield and short lance.

[Mage Knight Commander] (Sub-Boss)

Tier: 1

Level: 44

HP: 11551/11551

Tasked by the first lady to defend the vault. Although corrupted by the Spire, still loyally carries out its assignment, even in undeath.

Accompanying the Mage Knight Commanders were the very same Risen Mages and Spectral Knights from before. If there were any difference, Luke would pinpoint it to the visible green aura rushing from their bodies. The three groups comprised six lower monsters and one Mage Knight Commander.

Mist flushed from Luke's body, covering the area until the Soul Twister. Constant feedback about every movement, dimension, and weak points soared into his brain. The sort of strain would be too much before breaking the first intellect threshold. Now, it came as a burden, but one he could carry.

Deciding to take a second measure, Luke activated Polar South, furthering insight. Patterns formed, and the depth of information from the mists and senses around him tripled at the minimum. Luke strained to take it all in, not missing a single detail. It was only when he spent the entire duration of Polar South that Luke let himself relax.

If others were watching, then their level of concealment would be far above tier two. Assured as he could be that no other eyes pried upon him, Luke tapped on Wayfinder.

"We're in the clear."

The prudent compass turned his gears but remained mute. Luke couldn't force the Numbered to speak, so he empowered Xera with Essence, pointing her wand tip to the far left Commander-led group.

Mists already enveloped the area, and frost formed below the ghost group, leading them to confusion. Infusion danced upon the Sword Wand, followed by a frosted Essence Bond. Runes rapidly spread up upon the Reaver's arms. A rumble overtook the boss room as an attributed Essence Bond ringed around the Mage Knight Commander. Fresh winter fell from a blue fissure in the sky, wide enough to force the entire group to the ground. Luke applied Siphon to the same target, stealing away additional stamina and essence per second.

The Essence Fissure spread both negative effects to the Risen Mages and Spectral Knights nearby. Struggling against the overwhelming pressure, eight sets of ghastly eyes centered upon the Reaver.

Much too late. While the Commander may survive, the seven underlings had their fates sealed. Blasting forward with a Triple Step, Luke sent two rotating Essence Lances into the group's most concentrated area. Taking the generated Ice and Frost, Luke commanded it to rip apart every affected monster, and the Risen Mages died upon impact.

Rapidly approaching the remaining three Spectral Knights and one Commander, Luke reformed Xera into a sword, stabbing down into the most critical Spectral Knight. It released a deathly wail, evaporating. Hopping into the air, Luke controlled frost implosions around his body to create rapid rotation. Like a one direction tornado, he swept across the remaining two Spectral Knights as the Fissure's pressure let up.

Just in the opening act, all that withstood the assault was the Commander. White ghastly spirits flared from its body. A transparent chain shot from its lance. Luke harshly struck Xera against its trajectory, forcing it past his body. Using Triple Step again, Luke cannonballed into the Commander, sinking Xera into its chest, crippling the chest piece protecting the immaterial body. Frost solidified the ghost, slowing it to a crawl and accelerating Xera. Luke struck the blade against the kite shield, protecting the Commander. It dented, cracked, and— once Luke shattered the Frost covering its every inch—crumbled apart.

The rest fell into place from there. A short lance versus Xera was a terrible match-up. Luke's speed rose well above what the Commander could anticipate; Luke struck aside the defending lance and slit the Commander's neck down from top to bottom. The ghost didn't bleed, but souls geysered from it. It fell to a knee, one hand trying to push back the opening.

A frosted blade cut the Commander in twain, head to toe. Iced eyes slowly scanned the adjacent terrain, settling upon the two Commander groups left. Three silver orbs entered Luke's Inventory. Without further ado, the Reaver approached the central group, enacting a similar fight to the first. The only exception being that without Temporal North off cooldown, the bombardment started with one Essence Lance instead of two. That extended the fight, but ultimately, Luke stole more attributes from the Commander, evening out the time loss. Two silver orbs entered his Inventory this time.

Fully of energy, enough to act like a bouncing kid, Luke came into the last group like a shredder. He Triple Stepped to their center, Silenced them with Whisper Tome's domain ability, and used the extended range from icy arc blade strikes to hit multiple targets at once.

With damage well beyond anything a first ascended should do, the spectral beings returned to the nether in rapid fire, one after the other. Due to Luke's unconstrained fighting style, he suffered a lance stab through the back. The protection from frost creations and boost from the second vitality threshold made the error none too grave. With Vampiric Regeneration and stealing back health through damage, Luke recovered enough that a Double Stitched Dryad Bandage took care of the rest.

The stringy third group dropped nothing but what appeared to be the static loot the Commander gave, a floating soul shaped like a white and red key. Double checking the area, the flat floor remained barren, all ghosts wasted upon by Luke.

A quest revealed itself at this moment.

[Release the Soul Twister]

Use the three soul keys to destroy the soul chains restraining the Soul Twister. Warning, this will release Soul Mage Aren.

Reward: 6 Skill Points, 5 Mental Resistance.

Sitting down, Luke waited for all his cooldowns first before going along with the quest. Meanwhile, he located the ends of each chain. In the center, each transparent, liquid-dripping chain was a keyhole. The problem with that, to Luke's annoyance, was each keyhole clamped to the ceiling, several dozen feet above him.

The Reaver already created a solution to the issue, trampolining himself with Essence Fissure targeting him. Before doing a rather unpleasant task, he tried something else. Revealing one of the red-white floating ghost keys dropped from the Mage Knight Commanders, Luke lightly threw the key up, aiming for the rightmost keyhole on the black ceiling.

When the key came within twenty or so feet of the target, it gravitated to the keyhole, inserting itself, and the transparent chain attached turned into wisps of energy. One chain wrapping around the Soul Twister dissipated like dying light. A sound between a whisper and a ghostly groan reverberated upon the area before all returned to normal.

Not at all deterred, Luke brought out the second key—designed the same as the first. This one he threw to the leftmost chain. In a show of skill, the key meteored right into the keyhole slot like a bullseye. With one restraint left now, the Soul Twister slowly circled the floating land piece making up its prison. It attempted to jump onto the section Luke stood within, but the final chain left kept it from succeeding.

A tri-headed skeletal figure tried to rip itself out the netherly cyclone, bone wings sprouting from its back. It encountered the same restrain, wailing as the suction brought it back within. Its six white-blue eyes fixated on Luke with devourous intention.

The surprise had Luke wonder what would happen if he refused to free whatever the hell that was. Would he be stuck in this dungeon forever? Perhaps there was some sort of enrage timer? Both bosses within the 'wing' dungeons needed a party to release them. It wasn't like they began free, then slaughtered the poor fools or, in his case, fool that freed them. As for going back, the soul barrier showed no signs of weakening.

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Then again, for this boss room in particular, a spiritual rot acted as its own timer. It just happened to have the opposite effect on Luke, empowering him rather than draining him. Either way, the reward and the way out relied on him releasing that monstrosity he'd seen a fragment of.

This world had twisted Luke, corrupted him in ways he only realized after it was too late.

What normal person would be elated right now? He couldn't wipe the smirk off his face. All the young man could think of was how this would grow him like his sense of danger ceased to exist.

Or maybe the confidence that anything Luke's level and below could never overcome him had sunk down into his bones, his being.

"I think we're becoming more alike, Xera."

"Me too! Do you think skeletons have ghost blood or something? Now that I'm out the chest, it's time I get to taste all the monster bloody delicacies in the world."

"No, knowing you, though, you'd like slicing those oversized bones apart, time to work, partner."

"Swish me at em', boss."

Flicking the last key up to the black ceiling above, Luke paced backward. The key arced, then, like a planet caught in the pull of a star, the object slowly circled closer to the keyhole in the last transparent dripping chain. It fit snugly, turned, and spasmed into moats alongside the chain. The last restraint to the Soul Twister uncoiled, allowing the rotating disaster complete freedom.

It jumped from the floating chunk independent from the rest of the vault, right over the gap separating the two sections. Souls screamed, sucked into the three-skulled, bone-winged construction. A giant white scythe seemed to reap all the remnant twister threads, growing the bone construct. The six blue blazing eyes seethed at Luke.

Converging with subconscious intent, the Interface pulled up its information.

[Soul Lord Aren]

Tier: 1

Level: 48

HP: 33,333/33,333

Once man, now bone horror, a renowned soul conductor. Those in undeath fear his presence, helpless against his scythe and soul magics.

White and green aura burst around the boss as the blue cold flame blazed around its floating bones. A high pitch sound screeched across the platform, splintering all the floating debris.

[Soul Lord Aren attempts to damage your mind. The Spectral Heart resists, with the assistance of the Golden Mark and mental resistance attribute]

Luke switched Xera to wand form. Frost runes imprinted themselves over the weapon, reaching up onto his forearms. Frost naturally pushed from the Reaver, stopped by the white-green soul aura rushing out of Soul Lord Aren. Two territories formed, each owned by a significant power. Blasts of enslaved souls rocketed from the boss's three skeletal mouths. Luke would've suffered a deadly blow without the predictive sight inherent to reflexively applying Frost Essence to his eyes. Instead, he twisted his body, still too slow but guarded with layering ice on the affected half of his body.

The recoil tried to blast him off his feet. Luke's boot's grip properties kept him upright, straining his leg muscles. Ice slithering down his body, Luke raised his other hand, applying a Frost Essence Bond to Soul Lord Aren. The soul aura radiating from it noticeably decreased, giving further way to Luke's frost dominion.

Soul wisps clung to Luke, having found a living target. His resistances fought well against the unusual damage source, but he still withstood gradual damage. Shedding the affected ice mitigated the damage further. A persistent infection remained regardless. The rotting aura around the dungeon room assisted in healing the gradual damage, as did Vampiric Regeneration; both sources were overcome.

Ignoring the literal soul suckers clinging to the right half of his body, Luke started Siphon up on the boss. This took his stamina and resource loss to zero, regaining slowly, even. Still, witnessing the gradual health loss, Luke knew this fight wasn't the type to try and drag out. Ruinous echo already affected Soul Lord Aren, reducing the magic resistance of the boss by twenty percent. Luke brought the fight to the boss with his' setup' accomplished.

It floated back, content to keep the advantage growing at no cost. The floating green flames began to extinguish as Soul Lord Aren passed them, each time growing the blue flames licking across each of its floating bones. Luke rapidly closed the distance, suddenly Triple Stepping back a fair gap without warning. A metallic flash ripped right where he'd been but half a second ago.

Luke sweated internally. This predictive sight is saving my ass. That scythe is more deadly than it looks. How in the fuck did this creature swing it so fast? I failed to notice any arm movement.

Around the boss shone three possible 'images' at all times. Detailed by fake shadows, as currents showed directions. The sight messed with his visual processing. Luke would be the first to admit he failed to use this advantage fully. Yet it undeniably held great potential, especially as he grew accustomed to it.

Then time to push it.

Luke overfilled his eyes, the shadows became further detailed, and he used the Intellect attribute to process the additional information.

Sweeping the radiant frost onto Xera, Luke turned her into a sword. Luke dashed back in, immediately diving diagonally. A scythe appeared, sunken deeply into the vault flooring beside him. Every few seconds, Soul Lord Aren would futilely release a soul screech, nullified completely by Luke's defenses. One of its three mouths sent a white-grey beam directly where Luke stood. The Reaver used Triple Step on his right foot, scraping past the attack. His left shoulder got caught, and ice flashed over to quarantine the soul affliction. Withstanding pain beyond the physical, Luke came into an arm's length of the bone construct.

A danger sense—informed to him by the mists under his control—prickled at the back of Luke's neck. He ducked to the floor, the scythe reaping inches above him. Handling Xera with a double grip, Luke blasted frost on the sword for acceleration. Pouring all his strength into the blow, he bashed aside the scythe, leaving the boss wide open and off balance.

Commanding the ice layered upon his back, Luke shattered it, capitalizing on the exposure. Xera cut against the blazing bones, the cold heat subsiding against the frost spread across. Once within melee range, Luke refused to allow another gap. This boss was mobile, and with a wide range, its capabilities were likely at their maximum in the mid to long range battle style.

Relying on expanded senses, Luke often suffered glancing blows by the scythe's shaft. The Reaver split bone after bone, of which many regenerated. But the health points undoubtedly lowered bit by bit. As did his, as rampant souls trying to eat away at his vitality. The death scythe returned faster than expected, threatening to cleave apart Luke.

With the ice armor and upgraded vitality, Luke probably wouldn't be dead on impact, but he had no intention of finding that out firsthand. He inserted Xera between the scythe trajectory and his body; a ringing clang rang throughout the boss room. Knowing better than to think he could stay standing, Luke turned off the grip passive and went flying.

Happy cackles rang from Aren's three skulls. White souls began to twist into the scythe. Its bone wings spread, about to flap back to its preferred distance, away from this odd human it battled.

Luke grinned, "What are you happy about? Come with me."

A frosted maw opened behind the boss. Glacial pressure bore forth, reverting its direction, coming along with Luke, albeit not quite as far. It tried to resist, only partially successful, frost continued to stack upon it, dousing the cold flames. If anything, the cold fire often strengthened Luke's elemental ice, the successful patches becoming a deeper blue, almost black.

Thrusting a hand behind him, Luke commanded ice out of him, stopping the free fall away from the boss. Once he touched the ground, he overdrew from both Triple Step and shattering frost, damn near teleporting into the struggling boss.

Xera came in, striking into the rib cage, cracking a thin, transparent soul within. Luke heard a pained roar from the boss. In a show of desperation, a flooding stream of souls came out the boss, trying to push Luke away. The Reaver created a frosted glove, grasping onto a smaller rib bone, his strength strained against the ability, barely holding out.

Souls ate into him, and Luke could 'see' the scythe coming in from behind, the reaping edge threatening to carve into his back. With cold calculation, Luke used Temporal North, a new fissure targeted the scythe, pushing it away while overextending the two arms gripping it. Polar South fed into Luke at the same time. Blood Haze deadened the mind, while regeneration began to increase as damage spread across the Reaver.

A faint red mark appeared on the left arm holding the scythe, completely extended out, with no flexibility left. Without hesitation, Luke formed an Essence Lance, melding it into Xera, half black ice covering the Sword Wand instantly. A blast of winter overwhelmed all. Arctic winds swept at Luke's back. He formed an ice platform beside him, pressed both legs against the surface, and pushed off, shattering the platform.

Diving through the air, Luke cut the exposed arm in half, cutting precisely at the faint red marking. Another ice platform crystallized into existence from condensed air moisture. Luke again used it to press back onto the boss, flying to the enraged heads above him.

The boss tried to bring the scythe back to defend itself, but with Essence Fissure forcing it back and losing an arm, the measure failed. Its two bone wings overlaid, trying to cover the exposed heads. Fresh Infusion covered Xera. Luke began to rotate horizontally by creating small frost implosions all around his body, like a drill; the sword pierced into the wing sets, making pulverized bone.

Fearing the loss of momentum from the resistance, Luke shattered the gathered frost at the soles of his feet, going faster. All created ice listened to overwhelming command, coming into the young man, then draining out of Xera. The Reaver sunk his weapon into one skull; it became crushed ice without delay. Luke called upon Frost Fall Reave, lowering Aren's power while drastically increasing the frost quantity for Luke's techniques.

Arcing Xera in a single motion, Luke carved apart the remaining two skulls as he began to fall. Aren's disembodied screeches ruptured the Reaver's eardrums. Once Luke touched the ground with a foot, he used Triple Step to come back up, sinking Xera into the exposed chest, using her as a conduit, all the ice within the construct fulminated. A frost bomb so catastrophic formed that Luke helplessly crashed back to the soul barrier keeping him in here with this monster. His body slid down, and Xera left his grasp as she clattered aside over the vault flooring.

The Reaver looked up, blood coming from his head, flowing over the temples. A floating soul was all that remained, the bone and scythe shattered ice on the lifeless vault.

"Not…over….yet." Luke got to his feet but fell to a knee despite himself. He formed frost where Xera lay, exploding her back into his grasp. Wringing all the power he could from Elementalization, Luke hyper condensed ice onto the blade and threw it at the soul.

Sensing imminent demise, the soul tried to veer away, but the stacked on frost shivered it in place, barely moving. Luke snapped his fingers, using shattered ice to create additional thrust. Xera cut into the soul, and cracks slowly formed as ice spread once more. Luke tried to have the ice crush the soul, but an immense pain settled upon his body, reaching every organ.

[You have used Essence Feedback for the full eight second duration. All abilities sealed for eight minutes]

Luke prepared himself for the backlash. This boss wasn't the type to take his time on, so he opted to use this most powerful state of his. That came with risks, this being the most obvious. The Reaver fell face-first against the vault, and pain spiked across him. Yet, his eyes never left the frosted soul before him.

It flaked, then froze over, and gave one final shiver, going dark, soul light fading away. Four items dropped to the floor, presenting themselves with glorious silver and golden hues. Xera, no longer stuck inside a dying soul, dropped down, her edge sinking into the floor.

[You have slain Soul Lord Aren]

Uncapping a health potion and drinking it, Luke finally relaxed. As the healing substance got to work on the internal damage, he said, "Piece…of….cake."

It was not a piece of cake.